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British Columbia’s economy improved slightly in July with 14,200 full-time jobs added, while the unemployment rate dipped below six per cent, according to Statistics Canada.

Agency analyst Vincent Ferrao said B.C.’s gains were mostly in the finance, insurance, real estate and leasing industries, although there were also jobs added in the professional, scientific and technical services.

The gains were offset by part-time job losses mainly in the business, building and other support services.

B.C.’s unemployment rate fell by .03 per cent to 5.9 per cent in July, as fewer people were looking for work, said Ferrrao.

Meanwhile, Canada’s employment landscape shifted dramatically on Friday, as Statistic Canada corrected a “human error” in its Labour Force Survey for July that resulted in a new estimated gain of nearly 42,000 jobs for that month compared to an original tally of just 200 addition positions.

The federal agency also took the extraordinary step of issuing a statement clarifying how the error occurred and what steps have been taken to avoid a similar problem occurring.

“This was an isolated incident,” Wayne Smith, the agency’s chief statistician, said in the statement. “I am fully confident in the integrity of the Labour Force Survey program,” he said, adding that the agency “will continue to publish high-quality and relevant information on all aspects of the Canadian economy and society.”

The revised numbers, which more than doubled the consensus estimate for a gain of 20,000 jobs, were met with some astonishment on Bay Street.

“In my over two decades of experience in this business I struggle to think of a comparable foul-up anywhere in the world,” said Scotiabank Economics vice-president Derek Holt in a report to clients.

In a surprise announcement Tuesday, Statistics Canada said it had discovered an error in the processing of data for the July employment report, released on Aug. 8, and had been withdrawn.

The labour survey goes through a “major redesign” every 10 years, the agency said Friday. The last redesign, costing $5-million, was launched in 2011 and included an updating of processing system used for the jobs report.

“During the system change that was implemented with the July release, one program was not updated,” the agency said.

“This was a human error that resulted in the incorrect processing of some data for the July 2014 only. Certain respondents that should have been classified as employed were counted as not in the labour force, resulting in an over-estimation of job losses in full-time employment.”

Statistics Canada said it had pinpointed the cause of the error, “the agency is confident in the accuracy of the corrected data. Even so, it said an internal review had been launched of “internal procedures … to ensure that such errors are avoided in the future system updates to the Labour Force Survey, or any other program.”

This is the second time in the past year that Ottawa-based agency has discovered errors in its data collection.

In August 2013, its revamped voluntary National Household Survey was held back just days before its scheduled after an error was detected. The agency did not disclose the specifics of that error, as the report had not been made public. The NHS was published one month later after being corrected.

In Friday’s revised employment report for July, the agency said there were 41,700 net positions created, not 200 as previously reported. But the number of part-time employees was unchanged at 60,000, while full-time losses were lowered to 18,000 from 60,000 in the original report.

The unemployment rate remains at seven per cent in July.

BMO Capital Markets senior economist Benjami Reitzes said in a report to clients that the revision hasn’t changed the reality that Canada’s jobs market is hurting.

“The huge upward revision is welcome news (though it doesn’t help StatsCan’s reputation) but Canada’s underlying employment situation remains soft,” he wrote. “Generally lacklustre employment growth and modest wage gains will keep the Bank of Canada on the dovish side of neutral.”

The participation rate in July was increased to 66.1% from the original estimate of 65.9, while the employment rate went to 61.4 per cent from 61.3 per cent, the agency said in Friday’s revisions.

By industry, educational services and information, culture and recreation was increases. Declines were noted in construction, health care and social assistance.

with files from Tiffany Crawford, The Vancouver Sun

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